production team

production team

Dilip BarmanExecutive Producer

Dilip Barman is a long-time advocate of plant-based nutrition. As a Food for Life instructor, he derives great satisfaction from educating his students to improve their health by adopting a whole food plant-based diet. Dilip leads the Triangle Vegetarian Society where he hosts the country's largest vegan Thanksgiving.

He has taught cooking classes internationally, and enjoys blogging about his healthy and delicious plant-based meals. Beyond his culinary interests, he has a long history of interest in the film industry, having served as a film reviewer for a regional magazine as well as teaching film studies classes. Dilip is delighted to be working with code blue to help disseminate this all important life- saving message to the global community

Jeff Schrager, MDExecutive Producer

Dr. Schrager graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1990, developed pre-clinical trial testing on the anti-HIV protease inhibitors for a biotech company, conducted basic HIV research as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, then completed a residency in anatomic pathology followed by a fellowship in hematopathology at the National Cancer Institute. As a practicing pathologist since 2005, Dr. Schrager enjoys the intellectual challenge of diagnosing leukemias and lymphomas. He also has a long-time personal interest in keeping fit and eating healthfully, so he was thrilled to discover the growing movement of lifestyle medicine. Since 2012 when he joined the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, he has learned how behaviors greatly impact health. Coincidentally, around this same time his employer began a corporate wellness program in an effort to thwart the company’s growing obesity epidemic. Dr. Schrager volunteered to serve as the local wellness expert to teach and inspire his co-workers to lead healthier lives. In this role he is able to fulfill other aspects of being a physician not typically enjoyed by pathologists. He believes the consequences of inaction are too dangerous and that changes in public policies and medical school curricula and demand from healthcare consumers will be needed to catapult lifestyle medicine to the foreground to decrease the burden of chronic diseases and improve quality of life.

Marcia MachadoProducer / Director

Marcia wears many hats in her productions. She can be behind the camera, holding the microphone, or seated in the editor’s chair in addition to directing and producing. Txai Macedo, her first feature documentary, aired on Channel 13 in New York City and TVE Brazil. It was distributed for ten years by Icarus Films in New York and today is part of the Smithsonian Media Collection. Dreaming On: The Story of the Quandamooka People, her second feature documentary released in 2014, has screened in festivals in Europe and in the United States. The film is currently being distributed by the Quandamooka People in Australia.

Saray Stancic, MDProducer

Dr. Stancic is currently practicing Lifestyle Medicine in Ramsey, NJ. She graduated from New Jersey Medical School in 1993. In 1999, she was appointed Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Hudson Valley Veterans Administration Hospital in New York. She was later recruited by Roche Pharmaceuticals to develop new treatments for chronic Hepatitis infections. She has been an invited author for Forks Over Knives, was interviewed by Mitchel, M.D. for the podcast Healing through Nutrition, was the subject of a cover story in the August 20, 2015 issue of Dirt Magazine, and was named one of the “17 People to Watch in Health in 2015” in the January 2015 issue of 201 Magazine. She has spoken to diverse audiences, from mothers to medical students, on the impact of Lifestyle Medicine.

Tania CyprianoConsulting Producer

Tania’s films and videos have won international awards, including Best Documentary at the Joseph Papp’s Festival Latino, the Pan African Film Festival, and Fespaco. They have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Hong Kong Arts Center, the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival. Her television credits include documentaries for PBS, the History Channel, NHK in Japan, GNT in Brazil, and Channel 4 in England. She has also worked on productions for Bill Moyers, Martin Scorsese, Kent Jones and Nelson Pereira dos Santos.

Dr. Munish Chawla and Dr. Bandana N ChawlaAssociate Producer

Dr. Munish Chawla and Dr. Bandana N Chawla are board certified physicians in Radiology and Internal Medicine, respectively. In 2013, they adopted a plant-based diet after realizing the tremendous health benefits which complemented their practice of meditation and yoga. When they discovered the field of Lifestyle Medicine, it seemed a perfect fit, and are now committed to sharing the benefits of healthy lifestyle with their community. In July 2017, in an effort to raise awareness about the benefits of plant -based diets, they co-founded a blog and Facebook page called Plant Powered Physicians which later led to the founding of a non-profit called Peaceful Planet Foundation to further spread the message of plant- based nutrition, yoga, and mindfulness.

Emily KahoudAssociate Producer

Emily brings her journalism and health care experience to the production. She graduated from Boston College where she double majored in biology and music. She worked in the Lewis Cantley laboratory in signal transduction research, and helped edit grants and manuscripts for submission to numerous science journals. After earning a Certificate with Distinction in Health Studies at Cornell, she worked in infectious disease/immunology research at Massachusetts General Hospital. In Boston, Emily wrote for Spare Change News/The Homelessness Empowerment Project. She now writes as a contributing journalist for Straus News in New York and New Jersey, tutors the MCAT for Altius Test Prep, and teaches as an adjunct professor at SUNY Orange. She will be attending Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in August.

Anne BertassoAssociate Producer

Anne has approximately 30 years’ experience as a research scientist in both laboratory and clinical studies, primarily in infectious diseases and oncology. She has over two dozen papers in scientific/medical journals. She is a certified distance run coach and is certified in general nutrition, wellness, and sports nutrition. She started running several years ago and has since run a number of endurance races, including marathons, and recently completed an event totaling 48.6 miles. She is currently a marathon coach for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program.

Donna TarzianAssociate Producer

Donna is a Registered Nurse in New Jersey and New York. Her nursing experience is in acute medical/surgical care, critical care, and mental health. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology. With over 10 years of experience in personal fitness and lifestyle modification through health and fitness, she has trained clients with medical conditions to become athletes. She is herself a two-time Ironman Lake Placid finisher and continues to challenge her fitness goals.

R. A. FeddeEditor

R. A. Fedde was nominated for an Emmy in 2006 for her first feature-length documentary project, Combat Diary. $ellebrity premiered at South by Southwest in 2012 and opened in theaters across the US in early 2013. Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde played in theaters nationwide and went on to win awards at major film festivals. The Last One aired on Showtime and won the Best Social Issues Documentary Award at the 2014 Atlanta Docufest. Once and for All, the story of the rise of the international women’s movement, closed out DocNYC with a sold-out house.

Fedde's editing work for 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America: Antietam won the 2006 Emmy Award for Best Non-Fiction Series. Her editing on FRONTLINE Growing Up Online garnered another nomination for a 2009 Emmy. In 2004, Fedde won the prestigious Gracie Allen Award for her work as editor on Pure Magic: The Mother Daughter Bond.